Who Is Just Over It

“My house will be called a house of prayer,” but you are making it “a den of robbers.”

“THAT’S IT! I’M DONE!” Have you ever reached a point where you were just over it? I’m not sure what your “it” is, but maybe you decided you weren’t going to listen to it, look at it, or deal with it anymore.

Jesus knew the feeling. There is a moment in the Bible where Jesus went up to the Temple, as He had many times before; but this time the merchants and money changers (the people exchanging currency so worshipers could buy animals to be sacrificed) made Jesus furious.

This trip into Jerusalem was different from Jesus’s earlier visits. He had arrived in the city the day before, on what we now celebrate as Palm Sunday. The people had run before Him, calling out “Hosanna!” and laying tree branches on the road in front of the donkey he rode on. He had made a triumphal entry into the city. But when He reached the Temple, the scene was far from celebratory...

Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of robbers.’”

This scene is a stark contrast from another occasion in Scripture where Jesus sat with the teachers in the Temple when He was only a boy, causing those who heard Him to be amazed at His understanding. At that time, He had traveled to Jerusalem with His parents for one of the holy feasts. On their journey home, Joseph and Mary realized Jesus wasn’t with them. When they frantically returned to Jerusalem, they found Him “in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions” (Luke 2:46).

Twenty years later, Jesus was very familiar with all that went on in the Temple. He had seen firsthand the practices of exchanging money and selling doves at exorbitant rates in the house of worship. And this time, He was done with it.

He was about to face a trial, go to the cross, and die as the ultimate sacrifice for His people. So one of His final acts was clearing out the Temple to remind everyone there of the purpose for the house of the Lord.

Momma, there is a way to be over it and not overcome by it. We can be over our frustration and move on to a place of faith. We can be over our anxiety and begin the process of healing and health. We can be over the parts of our lives that seem to be holding us back and move on to our destiny. Jesus was done with the money changers and the sellers in the Temple. So He cleared them out. Then He continued His calling of proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and teaching His disciples. Tonight may Jesus’s holy discontent compel you to move deeper into your destiny and calling.

Tonight we pray for the momma who is just over it. Lord, she’s over the constant contemplating about what the future will hold. She’s over her own frustration and her own anxieties. She’s just over them. Lord, tonight we ask that she would draw ever closer to You in these moments. Help her to know that You aren’t frustrated with her emotions, that You created us as emotional and intellectual beings with minds, emotions, and wills, and that You understand why she feels this way. Please give this momma peace tonight. Help her wake up with fresh strength.

We ask in Jesus’s name, amen.

Jesus, I am so over ___________________. Please help me move past this and into . . .